Police said on Tuesday they had arrested an 18-year-old Spaniard of Moroccan origin in Barcelona for his “intensive” activity in promoting terrorism online, noting he had ties with other jihadists abroad.
The youth was arrested in Barcelona on March 16 on suspicion of links to the Islamic State (ISIS) and a statement from the Guardia Civil said he had “extensive connections” with extremists in Asia, Europe, and North America.
Police started to investigate the teenager, who lived at home with his parents, early last year after finding he was “using encrypted instant messaging platforms to express support for IS” and engaging in an “intense propaganda effort to encourage terrorism.”
The decision to arrest him was made after Swedish police rounded up four people who were planning an attack with links to the teenager, a police source informed AFP.
Sweden’s Sapo security service said on March 7 it had arrested the four in Stockholm for preparing attacks “linked to violent Islamist extremism.”
“He had been (in) touch with them for some time, mainly online, exchanging terror manuals and discussing possible targets,” the source said.
A police statement said the teenager had spread “a great deal of jihadist content about terrorist activities and about materials for making explosives.”
The suspect had also been in contact with a person in Canada “who was also planning an attack,” but was arrested about a year ago.
“It was the same sort of relationship as with the Swedes, they were in touch online and exchanged terror manuals and discussed possible attacks,” the source said.
Police did not find any evidence of such contact with people inside Spain. He adhered to “strict security measures,” using tools that allowed him to operate anonymously online and offering Jihadist sympathizers “training and instruction in terrorism.”
Investigators discovered he was using cryptocurrencies and “did not rule out his involvement in funding terror activities.”
The police operation was conducted in collaboration with Spain’s CNI intelligence agency, Sweden’s Sapo, France’s domestic intelligence agency DGSI, and the European policing agency Europol.
Spanish police arrested 78 suspected jihadists last year, the highest number since 2005, a report published by the Collective of Victims of Terrorism (COVITE) and the International Observatory for Terrorism Studies said.
